Under Wraps
by nise-nami
Summary: Once again, Roxas forgets a major holiday. What will Axel do to help him remember that it's Christmas? rated T just to be safe


Sorry it's late, but here's another story where Roxas forgets a major holiday.

I don't own any of the characters or items mentioned in the story (obviously).

thanks to XxKioraxX for getting me started on this

* * *

Roxas woke up with a pounding headache, not because he had been drinking the night before, but because his neighbors had. The apartment walls were so thin that Roxas heard everything that went on all around him …all …night …long. Clutching his head as he moved toward the bathroom, Roxas began to hear a replay of last night's activities coming from upstairs. On occasion, Roxas enjoyed visiting Reno, Axel's older cousin, but he thought that he'd give the area wide berth for a few days. Axel was Roxas's boyfriend from high school, and the two would occasionally have a game night or movie night in Reno's upstairs apartment. So Roxas knew exactly how rambunctious Reno could get. Finally, Roxas made it to the bathroom, only to be disappointed to not find the painkiller he needed.

"Maybe if I eat something," Roxas murmured aloud.

So he went into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator to find it nearly empty. There was leftover Chinese, but that was from a couple of weeks ago when Axel had tried to cook a romantic dinner for the two of them. It was, needless to say, a disaster. What Axel had told Roxas was going to be a "succulent dinner of steak and potatoes" turned out to be a charbroiled mess. Somehow, the steak and potatoes had melded together to form one big, inedible lump. So, the Chinese was ordered. But it was starting to become a science experiment in his 'fridge so he tossed it out. The only other thing that was in there was a half finished bottle of soda. Roxas groaned. He would have to go out to the store.

Roxas got himself ready to go and began his long walk to go buy food and pain meds.

"Damn it's cold," Roxas cursed into his coat.

He finally reached the store only to see that it was full of people. Roxas sighed and hoped that he would be able to find the things he needed and get out of there quickly. But as he walked into the store, his hope for a quick, painless trip through the store diminished. There were people EVERYWHERE. There was hardly any room for him to move through even when he pushed people out of his way.

Roxas decided that since there were so many people here, it would be best to get just breakfast and painkillers. He grabbed a basket and began his hunt. He managed to find some bread, peanut butter, and juice. But when he got to the place where the eggs _should _have been, he found nothing. Dumbfounded, he moved on to get some milk. Again, he found nothing. Frustrated, Roxas headed toward the pharmacy hoping that he would be able to find something useful because that headache was only getting worse.

Shoving more people out of the way, Roxas finally made it to the pharmacy and found the medicine he needed. With a sigh of relief, Roxas headed towards the check out counter, only to find that the line went to the back of the store and wrapped around to the meat department. As his headache got worse, Roxas strongly considered stealing his loot and getting the heck out of Dodge, but decided that waiting in a long line, having no breakfast and a killer headache, were much better circumstances than the things he had heard happened to people like him in jail.

After waiting in line for what felt like the majority of the day, Roxas finally made it out of the store and began his walk home. He began to admire what little scenery there was, but stopped and continued his walk looking down after he almost wiped out on a patch of ice. Axel always told him that his center of balance was off, so that's why Axel almost always topped. For a brief second, Roxas forgot about the cold as he remembered Axel. He had been off doing who knows what for the past couple of days, so they hadn't had time to see each other. Roxas was starting to get worried, but he wanted to give it another day or two so he didn't seem like the clingy, needy type of boyfriend. After another almost wipe out, Roxas made it back to his apartment where he could still hear Reno giving some sort of sermon often punctuated with an "oh God!" coming from someone else. Roxas rolled his eyes and put his groceries out on the table and made himself a peanut butter sandwich. He downed some Aspirin and water and went back to bed with the pillow over his ears.

**********************

Axel sat in his apartment room in nothing more than some jingle bell boxers and socks as he finished his cup of coffee. This was going to be a big day and, if all went well, a long night. Axel put down his coffee and began to wrap presents for his friends. He had something _special_, though, to wrap for his boyfriend, Roxas. _That_ present had to be wrapped last. Axel looked at his wrapping job. Corners were sticking out all over the place and not everything was covered up. Sighing, he called his friend Zexion.

"Hey there," Axel began.

"Axel. It's six o'clock in the morning. What could you possibly need right now?" Zexion's voice droned, filled with sleep.

"Well…um…I'm having some problems wrapping my presents."

"Axel."

"Yes?" Axel could hardly sit still; the coffee was starting to get to him.

"Go back to bed. Call me again in four more hours." Zexion clicked off his phone leaving Axel talking to silence.

"Fine," Axel huffed. He would have to find something else to keep him occupied. He already finished decorating his apartment yesterday, so he couldn't occupy himself with that. Axel got himself some breakfast and sat down in front of his TV. He turned on the cooking channel, hoping to learn how to make a delicious meal for the next time he and Roxas had dinner.

"This time", Axel vowed, "I will not burn it!"

Axel settled himself in and began to take notes but quickly fell asleep, not noticing his breakfast spilling onto the floor.

A few hours later, Axel was woken up by his phone.

_Da da da dah dah da da dah!_ Axel fell off the couch and into the mess his breakfast of cereal and orange juice had made.

"Gross," Axel muttered before answering his phone.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, it's Zex. I'm outside your door, so let me in."

Axel hung up and let Zexion into his apartment. Even though it was Christmas time, his buddy still wore all black.

"Way to have some holiday cheer, Zex."

"Bugger off. Where are these presents that you are incapable of wrapping yourself?"

Axel showed him to the presents and tried to hide the mess he had made earlier in the morning, but to no avail. Zexion sighed and shook his head but made no move to clean it up. He sat down and began to unwrap then rewrap the presents while Axel cleaned up his apartment and took a shower. Zexion was just finishing with the gifts when Axel got out of the shower.

Axel gave Zexion a huge smile, "Thanks, buddy!"

Zexion stood still as Axel gave him a one armed hug and gave Axel one nod of his head before leaving. Now that everything was ready to go, Axel put on some festive clothes and left to give presents to his friends who lived around the town. His cousin's gift and his boyfriend's gift he would save for later.

**********************

_Knock_. Roxas began to wake up at the sound of the knock but was still tired so decided to ignore it and go back to sleep. If they wanted to get a hold of them that badly, they could call. It took a lot less effort to stick his hand over to the bedside table and answer his phone than it took to actually get out of bed and answer the door.

_Knock_. Again, there was a knock that Roxas decided to ignore.

_Knock knock_. "Ugh," Roxas groaned and sat up in bed. He prepared himself for the walk to his door, but then realized that the knocking was coming from more of the direction of his window. Curious, he walked over to his window and looked down. What he saw shocked him. Axel was outside wearing nothing but a big bow on his nether regions. Roxas stuck his head out the window.

"Axel! What the hell are you doing?"

"Merry Christmas, Roxas!" Axel shouted, hands flung up in the air, and sticking himself out proudly for all the world to see, as if Roxas had just won some grand prize off a game show.

"Axel, get up here before someone calls the cops on you!"

*********************

Axel laughed and headed into the apartment. He decided to make one quick stop at his cousin's apartment, but he didn't have to, as Reno swaggered toward him down the hall. Axel could tell by the look on Reno's face that he had been laughing.  
"You saw me outside, didn't you?"

Reno responded by letting out a large belly laugh. Axel began to laugh right along with him. The warmth of the building as well as the laughter warmed him up. Axel handed Reno his gift and received a pat on his shoulder and a "Thanks. Now go get 'im Lover Boy" from Reno. Axel just laughed and finished his ascent to Roxas's apartment. He took a couple deep breaths to not only catch his breath from running up the stairs but to calm himself down. One last deep breath and Axel knocked on the door.

*********************

"What do you think you're doing?" Roxas yelled at him.

Looking hurt, Axel replied, "but Roxy, it's Christmas. I'm giving you a present. I wrapped it and everything!"

Roxas sighed; he hated seeing his boyfriend sad. "All right, but what occasion did you say it was for?"

Axel lit up and threw his body into a huge 'X,' "It's Christmas!" he yelled.

Roxas's eyes got wide. So _that's_ why there were so many people at the store and _that's _why there was nothing in stock! It all made sense now, but then Roxas remembered that, because he forgot about Christmas, he forgot to get a gift for Axel. Roxas looked up sheepishly through his hair, but Axel just chuckled, picked him up, kissed him, and took him back into the bedroom.

"Merry Christmas," Axel said again.

"Merry Christmas," Roxas replied.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it, even though it's late. .


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